Comfort Food Cinema: Broadcast News

 Cranky Network Manager:  "It must be nice to always believe that you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room."

Jane Craig:  "No. It's awful."


Broadcast News (1987).
Call No.:  DVD COMEDY BROADCAST
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For many people the hey day of romantic comedies was in the 1930s and 40s.  And while I'm a huge fan of rom-coms from this period (His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, anything with Jimmy Stewart), I'm also partial to romantic comedies from the 1980s.  While Broadcast News doesn't exactly fit the mold of romantic comedy perfectly; it's one of my favorites of the era. 

The film follows Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), a gifted, but neurotic news producer.  Her friend and frequent collaborator is Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a talented writer and investigative journalist who also has secret feelings for Jane.  However, her relationship with Altman, is challenged when her network hires the hunky, but less substantial journalist Tom Grunick (William Hurt).  Tom is a former sports reporter turned anchor  Though he is quickly promoted, he lacks the knowledge and integrity of a journalist like Jane or Aaron.  In spite of their different perspectives on journalism, Jane finds herself falling for Tom.

Albert Brooks really steals the show as Aaron Altman.  He's got some of the funniest lines in the movie.  Even though Altman can be smug and manipulative, it's really hard not to feel for the guy.  He's gifted, super smart, but gets passed over for a promotion because he lacks the charm and attractiveness of Tom.  This jealously towards Tom is only intensified because of his feelings for Jane, and her preference for Tom in spite of all the similarities she and Aaron share and their great chemistry as friends.  In one of the most cringe-inducing scenes of the movie, Aaron gets his shot at becoming an anchor, only to ruin it with an incredible flop sweat attack.

From the fashion to the technology, the film definitely is of the 80s.  Jane has one scene where she's dressed to impress, which does not translate at all to today's fashion.  However, the themes and relationships in the movie are still fresh today.  This is a wickedly funny movie that also has some real heartbreaking moments in it.  If you have not seen it before, or haven't watched it for a while, it's definitely worth checking out!

Valentine's Day Movie Guide

Valentine's Day seems like a divisive holiday.  Some people go all out for it, and for other people it just reminds them of how lonely they are, or how much they hate watching Nicholas Sparks movies with their significant other.  Personally, I'm pretty indifferent towards the day, but it doesn't stop me from participating in it.  I like to celebrate with a nice bottle of red wine, some chocolate, and a fun, romantic movie.  Below are some film suggestions for celebrating Valentine's Day, whether you love or hate it:

If you are in love with someone you can't have:  Brief Encounter.  This short but sweet 1945 British melodrama centers on the forbidden romance between housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) and doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) who meet a train station cafe.  Both are married and have children, but they soon get sweep up in an intense emotional affair.  Brief Encounter definitely shows the hardship of loving someone you can't be with.

Also recommended: Lets be honest, forbidden love is way more romantic than boring old requited love, so you have lots of good options here:  In the Mood for Love, Roman Holiday, Brokeback Mountain, The Royal Tenenbaums, and so on. 

If your significant other is a film snob:  The Before Trilogy:  Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight.  This super talky series follows American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French Celine (Julie Delpy), who fall in love after meeting on a train to Vienna.  The films manage to be both funny and heartfelt, plus there's lots of great European scenery (Vienna, Paris, Greece).  My favorite of the bunch is the second one, Before Sunset. 

If your significant other loves The Notebook, but you CAN'T GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN THIS YEAR!:  Awww...congratulations, you've got yourself a hopeless romantic!  Titanic would probably work, but really, do you want to have to watch that?  Instead, I recommend ruining The Notebook for them by choosing one of Gosling's less appealing roles.  Perhaps, Only God Forgives or Blue Valentine (balding Gosling with a mustache, ouch). 

If you just recently broke up with someone:  Annie Hall. This classic Woody Allen movie follows the sweet, but mismatched relationship between Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). 

Also recommended:  High Fidelity, 500 Days of Summer.

If you are happily single: Bridget Jones Diary.  Seriously is there any harder decision than choosing between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant?  This movie is a super cute update on Pride and Prejudice.  And if you're single, pat yourself on the back, because you don't have to listen to your boyfriend whine throughout the entire movie!

Also recommended:  13 Going on 30.

If your girlfriend is a librarian:Nothing says romance to a librarian like a little Jane Austen, so I highly recommend the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice.  But pretty much any Austen will do.  My favorite is the Ang Lee classic Sense and Sensibility.  

If you are in an on-again, off-again relationship: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Joel Barish (Jim Carey) is heartbroken when his ex-girlfriend Clementine undergoes a procedure to erase their relationship from her memory.  Bitter, he decides to have him memories of her erased as well.  However, during the process of having his mind wiped, Joel realizes that he is still in love with Clementine and fights to keep her in his memories.

If you are unhappily in a relationship: Sleep Walk With Me.  On top of dealing with a struggling comedy career and a recently diagnosed sleepwalking disorder, Mike Pandamiglo (Mike Birbiglia) begins to have some doubts about his long-time girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose).

If you're in a long distance relationship: Like Crazy.  Anna (Felcity Jones) is a British student who attended college in the United States.  While there, she fell for her T.A. Jacob (Anton Yelchin).  After graduation, Anna decides to spend the summer with Jacob, overstaying her visa.  After she returns home to England for a family engagement, Anna is shocked when she is denied reentry to the United States and deported to England.  The two lovers then try to keep their relationship together in spite of being an ocean apart. 

If you want wallow in misery, because you'll never find anyone ever:  Probably the best bet here is to play the Smiths on repeat and wash down your sorrows with some whiskey.  However, if you don't quite want to be THAT miserable on Valentine's Day, I recommend checking out a Michelango Antonioni film and watch really, really good looking people (or Jack Nicholson) suffer from loneliness and alienation in beautiful locales.  Check out his alienation trilogy: L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, and La Notte.

Also recommended:  Anything by Ingmar Bergman or any film adaptations of Kazuo Ishiguro novels.

If you're in love with a friend, but you don't know how to tell them:  Tootsie.  Talk about awkward situations, Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is in love with his beautiful coworker Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange).  However, she only knows him as his female alter-ego Dorothy Michaels.   This movie is probably my all time favorite romantic comedy and features my ultra crush, young Bill Murray, as Dustin Hoffman's roommate.

Also Recommended:  My Best Friend's Wedding, Pretty in Pink.

You are falling fast for someone:  Weekend.  Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New), meet at club in Nottingham.  The two go home together and begin an intense relationship.  However, Glen is soon to be leaving the country for an art course in America.

Also recommended: Once, Lost in Translation, Out of Sight.

Guilty pleasure pick: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

As a child of the 80s, I can do two things: spot a shoulder pad and quote John Hughes' movies. (I could also tell you where I was the first time I got my first Cabbage Patch Doll, but I digress ...) A classic Hughes movie, and I would argue his most funny, Ferris Bueller's Day Off still holds up 26 years later. And if you haven't seen it, or might want to revisit, I would recommend this oldie but goodie.

Do you that have a person in your life that seems to have everything work out for them? Well, Ferris is one of those people. The premise is simple: high-schooler Ferris wants to ditch school because it's too nice outside to sit in class all day. Of course, shenanigans and comedy ensue, though not without the dramatic moment in the best friend's garage after one of the shenanigans goes awry. All the other schemes, of course, work out because this is a Hollywood movie. But the fun is in the vicarious feelings, that, yeah, I wish I could play hooky too just once and have it be as great as Ferris' day off.

The performances are well done by all, but Matthew Broderick as the titular character, is golden. He carries the film with charm. The opening sequence alone is genius and a precursor to the use of the quick-cut-with-a-jumping-topic/situation-soliloquy, which is nowadays ubiquitous in many comedies. Alan Ruck (Cameron) and Mia Sara (Sloane, an appropriately North Shore name) are Ferris' best friend and girlfriend respectively. They are his sidekicks for the day, and each have their own moments. I particularly like Ruck's scene early on when Broderick is trying to convince him to play hooky too. Jennifer Grey, pre-Dirty Dancing days, excels as Ferris' jealous sister, Jeanie and even Charlie Sheen has a cameo that fits: bad boy.

FBDO may not compete with comedy classics such as Blazing Saddles or Caddyshack, but it's still a gem of a movie and good for a night in from the cold weather.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
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Time Capsule Cinema: The Sandlot

Benny: Man, this is baseball. You gotta stop thinking. Just have fun. I mean, if you were having fun you would've caught that ball. You ever have a paper route?
Smalls: I helped a guy once.
Benny: Okay, well chuck it like you throw paper. When your arm gets here, just let go. Just let go, it’s that easy. [starts to jog away]
Smalls: How do I catch it?
Benny: Just stand out there and stick your glove out in the air. I'll take care of it.

I am not exaggerating when I say I have chills remembering the above scene from the The Sandlot (1993), which I consider to be a classic summer movie. I loved this movie in grade school and still quote dialogue to this day. During the summer of 1962 sixth grader Scotty Smalls (Thomas Guiry) is the new kid on the block and is not good at sports (he doesn't even know who Babe Ruth is). His mother (Karen Allen) tells him that she doesn't want him to stay inside and isolate himself all summer. An adult Smalls narrates the story looking back on that summer, which he calls "the greatest summer of my life."

A group of boys in the neighborhood play baseball together every day: Benny (Mike Vitar), Squints (Chauncey Leopardi), Ham (Patrick Renna), Yeah Yeah (Marty York), Kenny (Brandon Adams), Betram, Timmy, and Tommy. They never keep score and never pick sides, they just play. One day Smalls attempts to play with them but is so embarrassed after he fails to catch a fly ball he runs away. Benny still invites Smalls back to play with them (and even gives him a better mitt and baseball hat) so they can have a full team of nine guys. The boys are reluctant to let Smalls, who can't catch or throw a ball, join their gang, but Benny, a natural leader, mentors Smalls and teaches him how to catch and throw a ball.

Behind the baseball field lives a huge dog, The Beast, whose legend terrifies the boys so much they don't even think to hop the fence to retrieve any of their lost baseballs. One day they lose their last ball over the fence and Smalls, coming to the rescue, remembers the baseball his stepdad (Denis Leary) has on the mantle at home, and tells the guys he has a replacement (not realizing it is signed by Babe Ruth). Everyone celebrates when Smalls hits the ball for a homerun, but Smalls freaks out because of how angry his stepdad will be with him; the ball was signed by "some lady.... Ruth. Baby Ruth." The rest of the boys, not able to believe Smalls actually played with an autographed Babe Ruth baseball, try to help him get the ball back by thinking of creative contraptions and schemes.

The Sandlot includes plenty of quotable dialogue and unforgettable scenes, including many lines where the boys attempt to one-up each other with insults ("You play ball like A GIRL!"). My favorite line has to be "You're killin' me, Smalls!" One of my favorite moments of the movie is when the boys play baseball on the 4th of July as the fireworks go off above them and Ray Charles sings "America the Beautiful" on the soundtrack. I also enjoy the non-baseball scenes, especially when they go to the pool to cool off and Squints pretends to drown to draw the attention of teenage lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn ("I've been coming here every summer of my adult life, and every summer there she is oiling and lotioning, lotioning and oiling... smiling. I can't take this no more!"). The memorable characters in the movie bring you back to the friendships you have when you are young, when the summers felt like they lasted forever.

The Sandlot: Find it in the catalog!

Time Capsule Cinema: Gladiator

Gladiator opened in theaters on May 5, 2000, dominating the box office and going on to win many awards

"Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome." 

Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator is an awesome blend of battle scenes, storytelling, and actor performances. Russell Crowe plays Roman general Maximus Meridias (Richard Harris), who is picked by the dying Emperor Aurelius (Richard Harris) to be the heir and new emperor of Rome instead of his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Commodus rebels against this arrangement, murders his father, and sentences Maximus to die. Maximus escapes, only to return to his home in Spain to find that his wife and son have been murdered on Commodus' orders. Sold into slavery, Proximo (Oliver Reed, who died during filming) buys Maximus and trains him to be a gladiator. Proximo and the other gladiators do not know about Maximus' background as a general in the Roman Army; they refer to him as the Spaniard. The gladiators eventually end up returning to Rome, where Maximus fights in front of a crowd at the Colosseum that includes Commodus, now the Emperor. Impressed by Maximus (who hides his identity by wearing a mask), Commodus meets the gladiator, and demands that he give his name; Maximus reveals his background and maintains his loyalty to Emperor Aurelius. The Roman crowds in the Colosseum love Maximus, much to the vexation of Commodus. Driven by revenge, Maximus fights so that someday he will be able to kill Commodus and return power to the people of Rome. Gladiator went on to be nominated for 12 Oscars, winning statues for Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Sound, Costume Design, and Visual Effects.

While Crowe previously drew attention and acclaim for his roles in L.A. Confidential and The Insider, Gladiator cemented his status as a bankable leading man. Gladiator was also the beginning of a movie-making partnership between director Scott and Crowe. Since Gladiator the two have worked together on A Good Year, American Gangster, and Body of Lies. Their most recent collaboration, Robin Hood, opens in theaters on Friday.

At Dundee Library we have a three-disc and two-disc set of Gladiator, and you can put either item on hold:
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Time Capsule Cinema: High Fidelity

"A while back, Dick, Barry and I agreed that what really matters is WHAT you like, not what you ARE like.  Books, records, movies, these things matter..."- Rob Gordon.

High Fidelity was one of my favorite movies in high school.  In hindsight, it seems strange that a 16 year-old girl would have so loved a movie about a 30-something, aging hipster male's commitment problems, but it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the aging hipster is played by John Cusack and that I could relate to the music and pop culture geekery of the main characters.

Based off a Nick Hornby novel but moved from London to Chicago, High Fidelity is set in late 90s Wicker Park, where Rob (John Cusack) owns a record store called Championship Vinyl and has just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle).  Rob works with two other music geeks: shy, nervous Dick (Todd Louiso) and boisterous, obnoxious Barry (Jack Black).  All three spend their days making weirdly specific top five lists (i.e. top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in 80s and 90s) and chasing away customers from the store.  After his breakup, Rob makes a list of his top five breakups of all time (Laura is bitterly left off), and then decides to reconnect with the girls on the list to find out where he went wrong. 

High Fidelity does a great job of capturing the time and place of the movie.  I was not hip enough at the time to really feel nostalgic about the indie rock scene then, but I vaguely remember Dickies clothing and records being cool among a certain crowd (I did partake in latter and still have my turntable).  Barry's ironic t-shirt love is still hipster chic today.  Wicker Park was less gentrified and not yet overrun by boutiques, hipsters, or Josh Hartnett.  Rob even at one point remarks the record store's location (Milwaukee Ave. and Honore St.) was chosen to attract a minimum of foot traffic.  Now that would be a prime location along the main drag of Wicker Park/ Bucktown. 

The comedic performances in the movie are stellar.  John Cusack is somewhat playing against type.  He's still a laid back, hip guy, but he's not the über-devoted, romantic-bordering-on-stalking Lloyd Dobbler type.  He's a grumpy man child, who hates his job, his friends, and his life.  He's also somewhat more appealing than Dobbler.  Rob would never sulk after a boring square like Diane Court (she's probably never even heard of the Pixies) or listen to sentimental tacky crap like "In Your Eyes."  Much of the movie consists of Cusack's monologues, which could easily be stagy or boring.  However, John Cusack infuses them with a sweetness and a Bill Murray-esque zaniness.  Jack Black's performance as Barry really stood out at the time it was released and helped turn him into a big star.  He is definitely very funny in this movie and good at playing a self-absorbed jerk.  Todd Louiso gives my favorite performance as the quiet Dick, a constant target of Barry's beratement.  He is hilariously awkward and timid, but everybody probably knows someone like him. 

Even though High Fidelity is steeped in pop culture, it doesn't feel dated.  It helps that most of the characters' favorite movies and films are retro and obscure.  High Fidelity is one of the few movies that really gets alternative and geek culture right.  The soundtrack also holds up, featuring music from 13th Floor Elevators, the Kinks, Smog, Stereolab and more.

Find it in the catalog!  

If you ever find yourself really bored one day, you can visit the locations where the movie was shot.  Most are in Chicago.  Check them out here.